


This Eternity

by BookDragon14 (orphan_account)



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Darkling death, F/M, Last Battle, POV The Darkling, mentions Nikolai Lantsov, mentions of Mal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 14:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11163567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BookDragon14
Summary: Kind of a one-shot of the Darkling's death, sort of third person, but also with his thoughts. I'm more of a Nikolina shipper but I did my best, please comment! This is my first archive of our own story, so please, be kind!





	This Eternity

"Like  _this?"_

The Darkling stared down at the slender blade of Grisha steel that was currently embedded in his chest. A blade wrapped in shadows, his own power, his own power had betrayed him.

He could feel his strength leaving him, his muscles slackening as he faltered and fell. With a dull thud he landed on the sand, trying to catch himself, but only managed to roll onto his back. He reached out toward her, his killer, his Sun Summoner- no, not Sun Summoner anymore,  _otkazat'sya_ now. 

"Blue sky."

He saw her look away, look up toward where the Fold had melted away, leaving only sky. The volcra swooped away, trying to escape the growing light. 

"Alina."

There was no power in her anymore, and he could not feel their tether. Whether it was because her power was gone, or because of the yawning, gaping pit that was growing inside himself, that he did not know. She fell to her knees beside him.

"Alina."

He repeated her name softly, almost reverently, though the part of her that had made her holy was now gone. With one shaking hand he found her fingers, wet with his own blood, and the blood of her  _otkazat'sya._ He brushed his knuckles over her cheek, watching through blurred vision as her eyes filled with tears. He found himself hoping they were for him; trying to forget how her tracker lay on the sand only feet away, his blood mingling with the Darkling's own on Alina's hand. 

"Someone to mourn me. No grave, for them to desecrate."

He dropped his hand, trying to focus what little strength remained in his battered, bloody body, into his other hand. His grip tightened, he could barely, so he tried to tell her with her fingers in his. This was what not what he had wanted. He had loved Ravka, loved his people, wanted to help them the best he could.

"All right."

Her promise, that was all he needed, but the words wouldn't come. His eyelids drooped, and he shuddered, forcing his bloody lips to move, his tongue to form the words.

"Once more. Speak my name once more."

"Aleksander."

He felt his breath leave him, felt, just for a moment what she was, had been and always would. He knew she understood him in that moment as well, just a boy, burdened and blessed with power and eternity.  

An ancient, powerful, brilliant boy, a boy who made mistakes. A boy who had lost one by one, everyone and everything he had cared about. A beautiful, broken, lost boy who had fallen perhaps too far for redemption. But at that moment he wished for it.

Wished for it as fiercely as he had the moment his mother had plunged off the cliff, trailing darkness and  _nichevo'ya._  The moment she had left him to weather the unending centuries alone, save for a girl who would do anything to destroy him and all that he had created.

"Don't let me be alone."

With that final plea on his lips, he slipped away. Slipped away from her, from the broken body that had seemed to small and too young to hold him. Slipped away from his power, from what it had created, slipped away into the yawning blackness. 

He died too soon to see his _nichevo'ya_  blown apart, the Fold torn by a thousand beams of golden sunlight, the monster prince return to himself, too soon to feel Alina pull her hand away from his limp and cold fingers. He did not see her turn to find her _otkazat'sya_  drawing breath, did not see the moment she left his side.

He felt only the warm, comforting darkness open up to him, washing away his pain and suffering. Felt only joy as he heard the rasp of an old woman he had long ago lost hope of seeing again. Only joy as he felt old friends greet him once more, welcoming him to a new kind of existence. Perhaps eternity wouldn't be so bad after all...

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I hope you thought that was okay! It's my first one and I did my best, this scene was really bugging me and I really wanted to write it, so tell me what you think!


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